Amazon as publisher: What does it mean?

“Everybody knew that an Amazon push into frontlist publishing was coming…. Highly-placed executives from New York houses have been migrating to Amazon for a while, and the company ratcheted up expectations after circulating a recruiting letter for various personnel a few weeks back.”

What does Amazon’s foray into publishing mean for the book industry?

Publishers, for one, aren’t happy about the move. Already squeezed, publishers are now worried the literary leviathan will use its influence and resources to dominate the publishing marketplace and could put a damper on competition.

“What essentially happened is you had six players sitting at the table playing poker, then a seventh player who has more money than the others combined, sat down at the table, and the price of playing poker just went up,” Mr. Shatzkin told the New York Observer. “I think it means that the agents are all celebrating and the big publishers are all crying in their beer.”